The present invention refers to a machine for filling or stuffing receptacles or casings, such as sausage skins with sausage meat, comprising a machine main part having provided therein a discharge means, a storage receptacle arranged on said machine main part, and a transport element for transporting the sausage meat from said storage receptacle to said discharge means.
In the case of such machines, it is well-known and common practice that a storage receptacle having e.g. the form of a funnel is provided on the machine main part, said storage receptacle being adapted to be filled with a sufficiently large amount of sausage meat. The sausage meat filled in flows out at the bottom of the storage receptacle and, with the aid of a transport element, it is transported to a discharge means, where adequate portions thereof can be filled e.g. into a sausage skin or into a receptacle.
In order to be able to continue the sausage meat fill-in process as long as possible and with as much sausage meat as possible, it is desirable that the largest possible amount of sausage meat can be accommodated in the storage receptacle. Hence, a larg-volume storage receptacle is, in principle, desirable, but an increase in the receptacle volume inevitably entails an increase in the receptacle height. However, the difficulties arising when the storage receptacle is filled by hand or e.g. cleaned will increase in proportion to the increase in the height of said storage receptacle. Hence, industrial machines are in most cases equipped with a feed means with the aid of which appropriate sausage meat carriages are used for feeding the filling machines. In smaller enterprises, e.g. speciality shops, the storage receptacles are normally filled by hand.
Hence, up to now such machines have been used in practical operation with a storage receptacle whose height of construction was limited to such an extent that it was possible to fill said storage receptacle by hand without any major difficulties, and in order to achieve this comparatively small volumes were put up with.
The comparatively small height of construction of known storage receptacles additionally necessitates that the top of said receptacles must be covered at least by a grid or something like that so as to observe the relevant rules for the prevention of accidents. These rules prescribe that, when the machine is in operation, any possibility of an operator reaching with his arms through the funnel and up to the transport element must be excluded so that shop accidents are reliably prevented.
Hence, the prior art employed the measure of placing onto the storage receptacle a grid whose openings were so small that it was not possible to put one's hands through these openings.
It follows that, in the case of this known machine, the capacity of the storage receptacle was not particularly large on the one hand, and, on the other hand, it was not possible to charge the storage receptacle through the grid. For the purpose of charging, the grid had to be removed or pivoted away. When the grid was removed or pivoted away, the drive motor of the machine was simultaneously switched off by means of a limit switch.
An additional disadvantage of this known machine is to be seen in the fact that the practically realizable filling volume must be limited more strictly than the real volume of the funnel. This is due to the fact that, when the funnel is filled completely, it may happen that some sausage meat material is pushed over the rim of the funnel, since in the case of these feeding funnels, it is common practice to transport the sausage meat to the flowout side with the aid of a conveying element which is arranged within said funnel. Due to the fact that, in view of the high torques which would otherwise be necessary, the conveying element does normally not extend over the full height of the funnel, a rotary vane member, which rotates on the funnel wall, is moved by the conveying element for the purpose of avoiding bridge formation, said rotary vane member destroying bridges which may form in the raw sausage and guaranteeing thus that the whole amount of material can be transported to the outlet. In cases in which the funnel is filled completely, this rotary vane member would have the effect that part of the material filled in is raised and could thus flow over the rim.
The present invention is based on the task of providing a machine of the type mentioned at the beginning, which can be filled easily, which fulfills the relevant safety regulations and which still offers a large supply volume for the sausage meat material to be filled in skins or receptacles.